Dick Armey's DC Shakedown

The day after Labor Day, just as campaign season was entering its final frenzy, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based tea party organization, went into free fall. Richard K. Armey, the group's chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group's Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey's enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks' top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news. The coup lasted all of six days. By Sept. 10, Armey was gone - with a promise of $8 million - and the five ousted employees were back. The force behind their return was Richard J. Stephenson, a reclusive Illinois millionaire who has exerted increasing control over one of Washington's most influential conservative grass-roots organizations.

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Dick Armey walks into the Wingnut Welfare equivalent of NORAD, and he brings along an "aide" who's packing, and he walks out with eight million bucks? You do that at a Gas 'n Sip and walk out with $50 in quarters and you do 10 years. The rich are different from you and me. Many of them are morons.